Update June 2018, Greece

Lefkas Marina Greece

Update   from 2017  and 2018

It has been a while since my last update so we are way behind with our posts and photos

In June  2017  at different times we sailed around some of the Ionian areas  with  our friends on Gypsielady, Red  Rackham and Fourth Dimension. Later we sailed up to Sarande in Albania to get Hamamas out of the EU and  to restart our  18 month VAT clock.  

In December 2017 we finally made it to Dallas to spend a wonderful Christmas was our daughter and her family. It was great to see how the grandchildren have grown and to get to know them again by spending quality time together. We all went on a small trip into Arkansas to visit time at a diamond mine .After 3 wonderful weeks in the USA we flew to Sydney where we spent 6 weeks or so seeing family and friends, enjoying at least  6 Birthday parties and other outings, helping Tom's sister sort Tom's aunts old house out ready to put on the market and doing the usual round of medical check ups.

Next we flew to Johannesburg and enjoyed a month in Southern Africa. First we spend a week in Kruger National Park (East Coast) photographing way too many animals and meeting some fun folk. From there we relocated to Cape Town for a few days before embarking on a 3 week overland journey along the West Coast. Our journey took us through South Africa.  Namibia,Botswana, including flying into the Okavango  Delta. Along the way we  saw some incredible landscape and visited many game parks before arriving in Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.

All this was  in an Overland Truck called Cliff (after Cliff Richards). We were not actually camping but staying in some amazing lodges and cabins with private facilities. Overall we traveled 5670 kilometres with 2 great drivers and an amazing hostess. They were from Zimbabwe. Our  8 fellow passengers were  from Germany , Canada and the USA. We had the most fantastic time as we all seemed to "click". So for 4 weeks we had every meal prepared for us. It was quite a shock to return to Hamamas and have to buy, prepare and cook our own meals! I think we  were " anticlimaxed" as it was an incredible journey. 

Since arriving back we having been taking things easy for a bit as we wait for the weather to settle as well as doing maintenance on Hamamas. 

In mid June 2018 we are travelling to Marmaris in Turkey via the bus from Lefkada to Athens, the ferry from Athens to Rhodes and the ferry to Marmaris. We are going to help a good friend bring his yacht across to the Ionian. It should be fun and help us keep up our sailing skills.

When we arrive back  here we will continue our maintenance  on Hamamas as well as plan some land travel later in the year.  

A Visit to Robben in Island South Africa, Feb, 2018

In February 2018 while on our trip to South Africa we visited the offshore island near Cape Town called Robben Island . This is where Mandela was a political prisoner for 18 years. Our guide was an ex political prisoner.
The ferry penguins were just roaming around on a super hot day. We also saw whales breaching on our way to and fro in the ferry.
We recommend this day trip in good weather as the sea can be rough. 

     

   

 

Out and About in Lefkada, Greece 2017

Tom and Fran had a great day on Sunday 29 October 2017 as we joined 19 other cruisers to walk up the mountain to the Monastery above Lefkas. The views were incredible as the weather turned on an “ Indian summer day. 

There was a bapthism service being held so lots of very well dressed Greek folk and their children were roaming around the Monastery, the beautiful gardens and the small zoo.

Later we descended the mountain to the beach and enjoyed a leisurely lunch.

Thanks to Bill and Jo Brown for organising the walk.

Lefkas Reception Committee, 2017 Sailing Season

During the sailing season we were thrilled to be able  to "meet and greet" a number of our cruising friends  we had met Alanya and Finike marinas over the past few  years. We often felt like the Lefkada Reception Committee!

Mary and John (Shazam ) and Phil and Geraldine (In Tune) were just passing through as they continued their journey to different parts of the globe.

Anna and Michael (Red Rackham), Anne and Peter  on Fourth Dimension, and Edward and Ina (Gypsielady) were cruising around the Ionian so we hoped to have more catch ups with them from time to time over the cruising season and again next year as we are all "wintering" our yachts in the area.

We were also thrilled to meet up with Sue and Mike from Skaddadle while they waited on their heavy lift  ship to transport them to the Caribbean.

Auntie Lorna’s 100 Birthday,

Our Sydney family gave Tom's wonderful Auntie Lorna a lovely morning tea today to help celebrate 🎉her 💯 Birthday ! Lorna, her friends and our family were thrilled when the celebrity letters arrived from the Queen, the Australian Prime Minister and the Mayor of Windsor ( her home city)!

A special thanks to Ivana Hayes for the photos.

Vilho Anchorage the Jellyfish Lake, August, 2017

"

12 August, 2017

We have just moved Hamamas down from Tranquil Bay to Vilho anchorage as there is much more room to swing when the wind gets up later today. We wanted to put lots of anchor out and there wasn't much room in Tranquil Bay. It was just too crowded.

It's very hot especially down here as the bay is landlocked. We are missing our air con! All the repaired systems are working well although Tom had to replace the capacitors on the refrigeration system. Thank goodness for that box of spares! It really takes a while to get used to living on the boat in "cruising mode."

13 August 2017
It was like  being in a jellyfish lake in  the Vilho anchorage on Sunday. A rather large one was slurped into our generator outlet  on more than one occasion. So that meant another job or two for Tom to sort! The only reason we moved from  the glorious Tranquil Bay anchorage was because we were sheltering from the  very windy weather and need to be away from the charterers dragging their anchors all over the place or anchoring right on top of us. In addition  we were able to put heaps more chain out so we wouldn't move. 

We were supposed to have had very strong winds but it wasn't too bad really. Stronger winds did arrive eventually bringing  very welcome much cooler weather so much so that we were considering what warmer clothes we needed for the night!

15 August 2017

When the wind died down in Vilho anchorage we discovered that the jellyfish really loved our generator inlet so much that many more were being slurped up.This problem prevented us from running the generator frequently enough to keep the fridges at the temp Tom wanted. 

So we  decided to move back down to Tranquil Bay or even try to get onto the sailing holiday dock. That way we would be able to give  the fridges a good run either on dock power or on the generator without the jellyfish being slurped into the generator filter.Tom has also had to clean the gen set filter as well as replace the solar panel  fuses and the  capacitors for the fridge water pump. Thank goodness he is a "Mister Fix it."  with plenty of " spares"!
These are the joys of being a power hungry yacht on ⚓️ anchor. But we do like our luxuries, cool drinks and plenty of supplies.

When we arrived back in Tranquil Bay anchorage we were thrilled to find that our good friends on Gypsielady had already arrived from their last anchorage so naturally we had a morning tea "catchup" Later in the cool of the evening we dinghied ashore with them so we could have a delicious meal at the Roots Resturant  (one of their favourite restuarants). Our "catch ups" with Gypsielady has been frequent enough lately that we keep forgetting to take photographs!

Huge Fire in Lefkas Marina, May 2017 Greece

. 

25 May 2017,
It was a very exciting day here today in Lefkas Marina as the motor boat just in front of us on the hard stand caught  fire. We were a tad worried at one stage about how it would all turn out but the Fire Brigade was on the job very quickly ( the fire station is just across the road from the Marina thank goodness) . 
Fortunately, we had our big masks at the ready as we had been using them while antifouling. The fumes were very toxic. The head sail fuller you can see in the photos is ours so that's how close the " excitement " was to us. Tom is going to " step it out" tomorrow to see just how close it was.

Fran was in town " hunter gather" while all this was happening but was a bit anxious to get back to see that Tom ( and Hamamas) were ok. However it was a couple of hours before we could get back on the boat as Hamamas was directly in the path of the fumes.

We must congratulate the Marina personnel and the fire service for their prompt action. Only 3 boats were effected by the fire, the boat where the fire started ( which is a write off) a Sunsail charter boat and a big fishing boat that had some damage